(Bloomberg) -- Pirates operating off the coast of Somalia held 374 hostages last month, a record high, a maritime security company said.
The pirates abducted seafarers from several countries in September, and the total held surpassed the 292 people taken in all of 2007, Hans Hansen, managing director of
Risk Intelligence, a Vedbaek, Denmark-based company, said today in an e-mailed statement.
``This is the highest number of hostages held at one given time in recent years,'' said Hansen, without saying where or how he got the information.
Attacks off Somalia this year have more than doubled, yielding as much as $30 million in ransom payments, Chatham House, a London-based analysis group, said in a report today. Piracy may force ships to avoid the Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal in Egypt, increasing the costs of oil and other goods from Asia and the Middle East.
France today circulated a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that would urge all nations to ``take part actively in the fight against piracy'' by deploying naval vessels and military aircraft off Somalia and to use the ``necessary means'' to combat crime at sea.
The Security Council will likely vote early next week on the measure, diplomats said.
June Vote The council voted in June to adopt a resolution that allows any nation, with the permission of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, to enter Somali waters to pursue pirates. France, Germany and six other European Union governments yesterday said they would deploy more warships off Somalia to fight piracy. Such measures will have only a temporary effect as long as the nation's security problems persist, Hansen said. About 60 boats have been attacked by pirates this year in waters off Somalia, according to the
International Maritime Bureau.
Two people died last month while being held by the pirates, one from a gunshot and another from heart failure, Risk Intelligence said. The pirates make an average of $1 million from every ship they seize and typically hold crews for five weeks, according to Risk Intelligence. ``For them, piracy is a business,'' Hansen said. ``At the moment, they are successful at what they are doing, unfortunately.'' The report blamed piracy in the Horn of Africa country on local political instability.
Somalia has been wracked by violence since the UN-backed transitional government ousted an Islamic militia from southern and central parts of the country in January 2007. The nation hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991, Warlordism, Terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government
The Curse of the Failed StateThe recent hijacking of a Ukrainian ship by the pirates plaguing the lawless coast of Somalia is the latest outward manifestation of a failed state. The most immediate reaction of the outside world was to come up with prescriptions to improve the naval security of Somali waters through initiatives such as inter-governmental coalitions against the pirates, military escorts of vessels carrying food to Somalia, or an internationally-sponsored coast guard. But while increasing security may alleviate the current excesses of the pirates, it does not address the reason why so many Somalis resort to means of piracy and violence. As
the Economist notes,
The harder, underlying problem is Somalia itself. With no proper government since 1991, it has been a bloody kaleidoscope of competing clans and fiefs. More than 1m, in a population once around 10m, have fled abroad; this year alone, the UN reckons, some 160,000 have been uprooted from Mogadishu, the capital, which has lost about two-thirds of its inhabitants over the years. The country is too dangerous for foreign charities, diplomats or journalists to function there permanently. Thousands of angry, rootless, young Somalis are proving vulnerable to the attractions of fundamentalist Islam in the guise of al-Qaeda and similar jihadist brands. The cash from piracy is probably fuelling the violence.
As long as Somalia remains a failed state with no functioning government or economy its people will continue to have few options left to make a living and even fewer incentives not to make a living by inflicting harm on somebody else. Somalia now ranks number one – the worst – in the
Failed States Index and unless the warring factions can come to an agreement on the future of their country, state-building process cannot begin.
World can use force against the piratesMOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia will allow foreign powers to use force if necessary against pirates who are holding a ship loaded with tanks for $20 million ransom, raising the stakes for bandits who are facing off against the United States and soon Moscow on the high seas. more..
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-10-01-somalia-piracy_N.htm?csp=34
Modern Day Piracy: SomaliaMOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somali pirates on a hijacked cargo ship holding battle tanks and hostages said Thursday that they were ready to battle any commando-style rescue attempt.
The warning came a day after the Somali government gave foreign powers a blank check for using force against the pirates, while U.S. warships continued to circle nearby and a Russian frigate headed toward the standoff.
“Anyone who tries to attack us or deceive us will face bad repercussions,” the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, t
old The Associated Press by satellite telephone from the Ukrainian ship MV Faina.
Ali sounded calm and relaxed despite being surrounded by a half dozen Navy vessels and buzzed by American helicopters.
Navy officials decline to comment on the possible use of force, but they warn the pirates against harming the 20 crew members or trying to unload the ship’s cargo of 33 Soviet-designed T-72 tanks and other weapons. They make clear they won’t allow the arms to fall into the hands of an al-Qaida-linked Islamic movement that is battling Somalia’s government.
Ali said the pirates planned to release the ship with crew and cargo intact after receiving the $20 million ransom they have demanded. They seized it Sept. 25 and are no anchored off the coast of central Somalia.“We have nothing to do with insurgents or terrorist organizations. We only need money,” he said. “We would never reduce the ransom.”The Faina’s hijacking, the most high-profile this year, illustrates the ability of a handful of pirates from a failed state to menace a key international shipping lane despite the deployment of warships by global powers.Ali specifically warned against the type of raids carried out twice this year by French commandos to recover hijacked vessels. The French used night vision goggles and helicopters in operations that killed or captured several pirates, who are now standing trial in Paris. Russia, whose warship was not expected for several days, has used commando tactics to end several hostage situations on its own soil, but dozens of hostages have died in those efforts.The Faina standoff will probably be resolved with a ransom payment like nearly 30 other hijackings this year, said Roger Middleton, who published a report on Somali piracy for a London-based think tank, Chatham House, on Thursday.But the negotiations might drag on, he said.“In some of these instances pirates have held out for almost two months,” Middleton told the AP. “They know how to wait things out. I think the likeliest conclusion to this, and the swiftest, is the payment of ransom. The alternative for the shipping company and the international community is that the ship is sunk and her crew die.”Hijackings of this Horn of Africa nation are being conducted with increasing sophistication by pirates equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, satellite phones and global positioning systems.Middleton estimated they have already pulled in up to $30 million in ransoms this year.
A Danish intelligence company specializing in maritime security said Thursday that Somali pirates make an average of $1 million per hijacked vessel and hold ships for an average of five weeks before freeing them.On Wednesday, the Somali government authorized foreign powers to use whatever force is necessary to free the Faina. A U.N. Security Council resolution in June gave permission to nations to send warships into Somalia’s territorial waters to stop “piracy and armed robbery at sea” if such operations were taken in cooperation with the weak Somali government in Mogadishu.But foreign warships in the area have not deterred piracy off Africa’s longest coastline. On Thursday, the Bahrain-based spokesman of the U.S. 5th Fleet, Lt. Nathan Christensen, said the Navy received reports of three more failed attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Aden.Middleton said the risk of hijackings threatened to further drive up prices for the oil and other goods being shipped to Europe and America from the Middle East. He said insurance rates for vessels traveling by Somalia had jumped tenfold.
http://corprahlanfrey.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/modern-day-piracy-somalia/Somalia giv
ing pirates a bad nameThought that pirates belonged to the realm of children's books and a thick-eyelinered Johnny Depp? Well, there's nothing storybook at all about this story: Small-scale pirates off the coast of Somalia have attacked
62 ships this year, 25 of them hijackings.
On Sept. 25, the increasingly bold pirates caught their
biggest ship yet, a Ukrainian boat carrying an estimated $30 million in weapons and ammunition. The pirates are asking for $20 million in ransom.
So, whence do such medieval-sounding avengers hail?
As someone who wrote her undergraduate thesis on Somali pirates, I'm kind of perversely thrilled that they've become such a hot topic. Some quick background: For the last two decades, Somalia's politics have been one big power vacuum, with any number of unsavory characters (both Somali and foreign) vying to fill the gap. (I will refrain from expounding further, but a good update can be found
here.)
About 10 or 15 years ago, fishermen, too, noticed that the power vacuum wasn't just a land-lubber phenomenon. As the pirates themselves describe in a fascinating
interview with the New York Times, they call their merry band "the Central Region Coast Guard," and characterize it as a sort of ersatz navy that merely protects fishing vessels from outsiders eager to steal their catch. Of course, they have held
humanitarian aid,
yachts, and now weapons shipments hostage. And as for the ransom thing, who wouldn't ask for a bite, when there is nothing else to eat?
This time, the Somali pirates are likely to get their cut of
at least a few million dollars. Ransoms paid to various captors this year alone have
cost $30 million. But five U.S. warships and another Russian vessel on the way will ensure that no funny business takes place. Many had feared that the pirates would sell the weapons to terrorists on a dangerously well-connected Somali black market.
I'm sure they would love to do that, but since they
attacked from wooden fishing boats, it's not likely they could even begin to offload the weapons. Tanks -- unlike pirates -- don't do so well on the high seas.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9936
Africa said Wednesday he believes distrust of U.S. motives on the continent will fade as it becomes clear that the creation of Africa Command does not represent a change in the United States' foreign policy.
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